Reel handlers have been developed to aid in lifting and loading cable reels on to a truck bed, for example. In particular, the reel handlers are designed to lift a reel off the ground so that the reel can be rotated to allow cable to be unwound from the reel or to wind cable around the reel. Conventional reel handlers may engage a reel in various ways. For example, the reel handlers may include a pair of working arms that position the reel between the arms in order to lift the reel off the ground and position the reel such that cable can be wound onto the reel or unwound from the reel, for example. One or both of the arms are movable relative to another one of the arms to space the arms apart. At least one of the arms is then moved toward the other one of the arms until the arms engage the reel. However, movement of the arms relative to one another is often difficult to control. For example, the arms may move too much or too little relative to one another. Alternatively, the arms may not move in unison. That is, one of the arms may move more or less than the other arm, making it difficult to properly couple the reel to the arms. This disclosure describes an improvement over these prior art technologies.